


Goodbye Stranger

by HeartsInJeopardy



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Goodbyes, New Ending (sort of), Nightmares, Repressed Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-20 21:53:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21063773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartsInJeopardy/pseuds/HeartsInJeopardy
Summary: Before leaving Earth, Carol has a long overdue heart to heart with Maria.





	Goodbye Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> After re-watching _Captain Marvel_ for the first time since it was in theaters, I was struck by how hurried Carol and Maria’s goodbye was. This was my attempt to give them a real farewell scene before Carol left Earth.  
I’m always anxious about writing for larger fandoms, so if you enjoy this (or don’t) please let me know. I love feedback, good or bad.

“Can’t sleep?” Maria asked.

There was a loud _thunk_ then a groan from under the hood of her prop plane, as a startled Carol stood up too fast.

Maria didn’t bother hiding her smile. “I guess your superpowers don’t cover that huh?”

“It didn’t _hurt_, exactly,” Carol said while rubbing a hand over her blond hair. “But a little warning would have been nice.”

Faint moonlight fell on Maria’s yard, leaving her workshop dark under its canopy. She stepped closer, into the glow of a mechanic’s lamp Carol had hooked on the plane. As she set down her tools, Maria offered a steaming mug of coffee.

“Isn’t it a little early?”

Maria shook her head. “You really have changed. Or maybe the Starforce just keeps better hours than the Air Force.”

Carol tilted her head, eyeing the mug, then finally took it. “It hurts to say so,” she admitted, “but maybe you know me better than I do.”

“You used to drink the stuff around the clock, but said you were immune to it.” Maria raised her own mug with a playful smile. “You could brew a fresh pot at nine ’o’clock and still fall asleep during _Doogie Howser_.”

Carol smiled and took a sip, but Maria noticed a faraway look in her eyes.

“Let me guess, you don’t remember _Doogie Howser_?”

“I don’t remember… you.” Carol grimaced. “Or us, I mean. You have so many memories of our time together that haven’t come back to me.”

She turned away, staring into the darkness.

“Meanwhile, I can remember a lot of things I would rather forget.”

“Is that why you’re out here making a mess of my plane when you should be in bed?”

Carol let out a laugh. “I just noticed she could use a tune-up-”

“Oh,” Maria scoffed. “I don’t know what I’ve done without you for the past six years.”

She leaned over to glance at the engine. Beside her, Carol folded her arms and chewed her lip. Maria had known her long enough to tell when she was working up the courage to say something, and waited in silence until Carol was ready.

“I have these dreams,” she said. “Or this one dream. Always the same one. About the Asis crash, and the explosion, and Yon-Rogg…”

“And you’re still having it.”

Carol sighed. “Yeah. And I kind of hoped that, y’know, after everything I’ve been through… I don’t know.”

“That you would just…” Maria shrugged her shoulders. “Get over it, all at once.”

Carol rolled her eyes and cracked a smile. “Well when you say it like that.”

“Let me put it this way.” Maria leaned against the plane with a smirk. “You crash-landed an experimental spacecraft with a malfunctioning egress system after a surprise attack – by aliens. Then, your… your _everything_ was changed by an explosive reaction that no one in the galaxy can really explain.”

She shook her head slowly.

“That might be something you never get over. And that’s before you add in what’s his name and the brainwashing and-”

“I get it, I get it.” Carol held up a hand. “But you can’t blame a girl for hoping.”

They looked down at their feet and sipped their coffee. For a long moment, only the sound of crickets chirping in the grass broke the silence.

“You know.” Maria cleared her throat. “I practiced what I would say to you, all those years you were MIA. I would sit up at night and talk to ‘you’ in my head, or make a list of all the things I would share when you turned up on my doorstep out of the blue. Gossip from work. Stories about Monica. Because somehow I _knew_ you would be back.”

Carol smiled sadly. “Not the reunion you were hoping for, huh?”

Maria took Carol’s hand and squeezed it tightly. While she kept her head down, the tears welling in Maria’s eyes were plain to see in the lamplight.

“I’m not disappointed that you’re a different person, Carol,” she said in a hushed tone. “But I’m ashamed that I can’t help you. That I can’t be there for you to rely on, like I planned to for all those years.”

“No,” Carol protested. “You’ve already-”

“Yes, I can fly a quinjet,” Maria interrupted. “And shoot some aliens with a laser gun. But my world is here.” She gestured to the house, where a light was shining over the back door. “And yours is…”

She motioned to the canopy above, and the stars shining over it.

“Earth is a part of my world,” Carol insisted. “And so are you and Monica.”

“A part.” Maria nodded. “I know that’s true. But we’re a small part of a big, big galaxy.”

She tugged at the end of Carol’s t-shirt, looking over its grease-stained Guns N’ Roses logo, and smiled to herself.

“This is the Carol I know. The woman who never met a pain she couldn’t bury in her work. Whether it’s a tune-up, or a test flight, or an interplanetary war.”

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, set her jaw, and forced a smile.

“If you’re going to find peace, Carol, it will be out there helping people. We both know it. I’m just sorry I can’t cover your six anymore.”

Carol blinked back her own tears, avoiding Maria’s steady gaze. She wanted to argue, to tell Maria that she was wrong. But a part of her – an angry, resigned part deep inside herself – knew that she was right.

She draped her arm around Maria’s shoulders and pulled her close, while Maria slid an arm around her waist. It was a gesture that felt familiar, but left a pang in Carol’s heart when she couldn’t recall just why.

“I don’t know how far I’m going, or how long it will take me,” she told Maria with a sniffle. “But you’ll always be my best friend. And I’ll always be your pain in the ass.”

They both broke out laughing. Maria wiped a tear from Carol’s cheek then wrapped her in a tight hug, letting her coffee spill in the grass.

“Just promise it won’t be forever,” she whispered, her voice cracking on the last word. “I can wait as long as I need to, as long as you come back to me.”

“I will,” Carol said. “I promise.”

They lingered in the quiet of the moment, nuzzling their heads together while Carol smoothed a hand up and down Maria’s back. Finally, Maria was the one to lean away and clear her throat.

“We should head back,” she said plainly. “If I’m lucky I can get a few hours of shut eye before someone wakes me up asking for chocolate chip pancakes.”

“I prefer banana pancakes.”

Maria rolled her eyes and walked off, toward the house.

“Ohhh,” Carol said, following after her with a mischievous grin. “You meant Monica.”

“I’m starting to wonder why I missed you.”

“It beats me.”

Carol shrugged and took Maria’s hand. While Maria kept her eyes forward, she couldn’t hide the flicker of a smile on her face.

“But now I know,” Carol said, “why I’ll miss you.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it this far, please let me know what you thought.


End file.
